023810 Rangifer Spec Issue

The Ninth North American Caribou Workshop, S3 Kuujjuaq, Québec, Canada, 23-27 April, 2001. Of reindeer and man, modern and Neanderthal: A creation story founded on a historic perspective on how to conserve wildlife, woodland caribou in particular Valerius Geist Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, Faculty of Environmental Design, The University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada ([email protected]). Abstract: A review of successful systems of wildlife conservation, the North American included, suggests that broad pub• lic support and determined effort by volunteers is essential for wildlife conservation. Since North American wildlife con• servation is the only large-scale system of sustainable natural resource use, and exemplifies the great economic and cul• tural benefits of a renewable resource held in common, its lessons may be profitably applied to Rangifer conservation. Animals that have value are surrounded by myths that tell of their relationship to humans. In our Anglo-American cul• ture reindeer and caribou are rather deficient in this respect. However, reindeer feature prominently in the rise of mod• ern humans and the demise of Neanderthal man early in the Upper Paleolithic. The colonization by humans of the periglacial environments during the last glaciation depended on the rich periglacial megafauna, Rangifer included. Archeological sites of the European Upper Paleolithic show that reindeer were the most important food source. The Upper Paleolithic, characterized by exceptional physical development and health of people, as well as by the first flowering of art, extended from Spain to Crimea with surprisingly little cultural change for some 25 000 years. While the cave paint• ings express an infatuation with dangerous game (woolly mammoth, woolly rhino, steppe wisent, giant deer, cave lions, bears etc), the archeological sites indicate that reindeer was the staple food. Reindeer play a minor role in cave art. Neither this art, nor archeological sites, show any evidence of warfare. It is hypothesized that during a mid-glacial interstadial modern people entered Europe having developed a highly successful system of hunting reindeer using interception based on the discovery of chronologic time. This led to a first flowering of culture based on a rich economy, but also to addi¬ tional hunting mortality of the periglacial mega-herbivores that Neanderthal people depended on. That would explain the slow decline into extinction of the previously invincible Neanderthal people. Therefore, modern humans owe much of what they are to reindeer. We need to reciprocate. What is urgently required is a foundation formed by volunteers for the conservation of caribou, similar to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, focusing on the severely endangered wood¬ land caribou. Key words: caribou conservation, cave art, extinction, megafauna, Rangifer tarandus, Upper Paleolithic. Rangifer, Special Issue No. 14: 57-63 Successful conservation models ulations are in imminent danger of extinction. As A review of the conservation of migratory caribou my basis of comparison I have used first the North and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and its unquestion¬ American model of wildlife conservation that arose able successes, indicates that conservation of these in the past 80 years, as it not only led to the return animals follows the principles of successful conserva¬ of wildlife continentally, but is remarkable in other tion of other species. However, this only highlights ways as well. It shows how to hold and manage a the fact that, by contrast, woodland type caribou and renewable natural resource in public trust so as to reindeer, with the exception of Newfoundland cari¬ defeat Garrett Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons bou, have not prospered and that some unique pop- (Hardin, 1968), that the resource is being used not Rangifer, Special Issue No. 14, 2003 57 merely in a sustainable fashion, but has expanded ogy and management are an expression of this grass and multiplied, that a public resource can generate root concern and signify the importance this animal through the private sector remarkable wealth and has to people living in arctic landscape employment, that some markets in wildlife actually While the above is valid for migratory caribou do foster conservation, while others - in particular and reindeer, it is not for most forest or woodland the sale of dead wildlife - are highly detrimental, and forms, be they Eurasian or North American. The while wildlife conservation is linked to a broad- woodland forms are the usually large-bodied races on based public support, it is but a fragment of that the southern rim of Rangifer's continental distribu¬ public which supports wildlife substantially in tion here and in Asia. The societal factors that do return for the use of that resource. Put less delicate¬ apply to elk (Cervus elaphus canadensis) via the Rocky ly, wildlife has blossomed because hunters volun¬ Mountain Elk Foundation or to mountain sheep teered great effort and finances in order to see (Ovis dalli, Ovis canadensis) via the Foundation for wildlife prosper (Geist, 1981; 1995; Geist et al., North American Wild Sheep, have no counter part 2001). The following paper is thus a discourse on the for woodland caribou. Why are elk so captivating to much vaunted "human factors" in wildlife conserva¬ so many persons, but woodland caribou are not? Is it tion. the scenic splendor of mountains which frames elk, Using the North American conservation model as opposed to gloomy tamarack and black spruce one can delineate the conditions for successful con¬ bogs that hide woodland caribou, as my son Karl, a servation, and in so doing discover that these appear wildlife artist, suggests? Is it that herds of migrato¬ to be universals. For conservation of a species to be ry caribou pouring across the television screen oblit¬ successful there needs to be an organized, politically erate concern for the dying woodland forms? It is potent clientele promoting that species. That clien¬ significant in this context that elk or mountain tele is instrumental in generating systems to moni¬ sheep have little role in the livelihood of most mem¬ tor and investigate said species, it fosters common bers of the respective elk and sheep conservation belief about the species that stimulate, entertain and organization. Yet there is much passion for these ani¬ unify the clientele, it insures just and fair distribu¬ mals, even by those that have little hope, if any, of tion of spoils generated by the resource, it functions someday hunting elk or sheep. Instead, members cel¬ in an open and democratic process that reinforces the ebrate their identity with other like-minded via clientele member's status, generates innovation, well-attended meetings to raise funds for conserva¬ maintains and augments useful traditions, and tion, share journals and news letters, support arts enshrines and celebrates its successes symbolically. and crafts symbolizing elk and sheep, weave togeth¬ You may notice that these factors apply to such er tall tales of shared experiences and become active grass-roots conservation organizations as Ducks politically in diverse ways. In a recent book the Unlimited, or The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Foundation for North American Wild Sheep and the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, the Boone & Crockett Club celebrated a quarter century Wild Turkey Federation and others, but also to cur¬ of success in mountain sheep conservation, in which rent societal structures - aboriginal and modern - wild sheep populations across North America that support migratory barren ground caribou in increased by nearly 50 percent (Toweill & Geist, North America and migratory reindeer in Eurasia. 1999). There is the grass-roots clientele of hunters, users of Please note this success is based on private effort caribou and reindeer that are most anxious to see without recourse to coercive or punitive legislation. these animals prosper. These users are organized to It was done without noticeable national or interna¬ see that there is monitoring, research as well as open tional publicity or public incitement, in short, quite discussions of management, and the translation of different from activities associated with convention¬ their concerns into effective political action. al environmental movements. Yet these quiet private Moreover, some of these users are not merely ration¬ efforts were eminently successful as seen by the ally or economically involved with reindeer or cari¬ increase in distribution and numbers of elk and wild bou, but have a deep emotional bond to these ani¬ sheep. Could this be duplicated for woodland cari¬ mals, maintain a tradition of myths and celebrate the bou? There are no clubs organized to specifically culture that thrives about migratory Rangifer. These rehabilitate woodland caribou in mainland North animals are thus far more than a source of livelihood America, although the Newfoundland caribou, a col¬ or economics, but are a source of ongoing cultural orful woodland form by convergence, is thriving. It identity, entertainment, education, the very societal does so due to the dedicated support of glue of communities that hunt migratory caribou or Newfoundland's citizen. The Newfoundland caribou reindeer. Formal gatherings to discuss Rangifer biol- is a subspecies quite distinct in pelage characteristics 58 Rangifer, Special Issue No. 14, 2003 from other caribou. Put in other words: placing es, dogs, cats - even pigs! Currently, there is little woodland caribou on an endangered species list mythology or public knowledge about caribou and might have some benefits, but having an organized reindeer, excepting in aboriginal and northern com¬ citizen group root aggressively for woodland caribou munities that depend on caribou for sustenance. would be much better. There is little celebration of caribou or reindeer in arts and crafts, as there is of elk, deer or even moun¬ tain sheep. There are but a few songs, poems or pop¬ Pitfalls in caribou taxonomy ular books dedicated to caribou or reindeer and even A brief excursion into caribou taxonomy is essential such are invariably about the migratory barren at this point.

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